37.2383, Confs: Panel at IPC20: The Pragmatics of Microaggressions and Covert Harm (Finland)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2383. Thu Jul 16 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2383, Confs: Panel at IPC20: The Pragmatics of Microaggressions and Covert Harm (Finland)

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Date: 14-Jul-2026
From: Célia Vamiller [Celia.Vamiller at UGent.be]
Subject: Panel at IPC20: The Pragmatics of Microaggressions and Covert Harm


Panel at IPC20: The Pragmatics of Microaggressions and Covert Harm
Short Title: 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20)

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Célia Vamiller
Contact Email: Celia.Vamiller at UGent.be
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

This panel invites pragmalinguistics and socio-pragmatic perspectives
on microaggressions, and more broadly, forms of covert harm and
interpersonal bias. Originally defined by Pierce as ‘black-white
racial interactions [that] are characterized by white putdowns, done
in an automatic, preconscious or unconscious fashion’ (Pierce, 1974:
515), microaggression has recently been described, as ‘subtle
behaviors, social practices, and environmental features that express
disrespectful or derogatory attitudes towards members of structurally
oppressed groups. They tend to be attributionally ambiguous, leaving
some targets to second-guess their own perception as to whether one
occurred’ (Friedländer 2023: 1).
Research in linguistics and communication studies has extensively
documented the harmful psychological and social effects of explicit
offensive language, most notably hate speech (Bührer et al., 2024) and
slurs (Popa-Wyatt & Wyatt, 2018). Such blatant verbal abuse is
characterised by conversational transparency: there is a clear, often
institutionalised intent to harm, marginalise or dehumanise  specific
targets. Due to their overt nature, these forms of aggression are
easily identifiable and subject to legal and social sanctions.
However, interpersonal and systemic harm is frequently enacted through
more opaque channels, as in the case of microaggressions. Operating
beneath the conventional conversational surface, microaggressions are
brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to
individuals based on their marginalised group status (Friedländer,
2023). They are notably difficult to identify and challenge due to
their inherent ambiguity (Holtgraves, 2023). Rather than relying on
overt derogatory language, microaggressions exploit everyday
conversational structures and the multi-layered mechanisms of implicit
communication (Elder, 2021). This nesting of bias within ordinary
interaction grants the speaker plausible deniability, allowing them to
bypass accountability while weaponizing language to offend, exclude,
and disempower marginalised groups (Freeman & Stewart, 2021). The
question of intentionality is likewise crucial: it has been shown in
theories of impoliteness (Culpeper, 2011) that it is the target’s
response that is key rather than the speaker’s intention to hurt.
By connecting pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic approaches to
linguistic bias, this panel seeks to highlight the linguistic
mechanisms through which speakers inflict harm, reinforce stereotypes,
and perpetuate discrimination without enacting explicit verbal
aggression (Glover, 2023). Central to this panel is the investigation
of how semantic and pragmatic features interact to construct
microaggressions.
We welcome theoretical, empirical, corpus-based contributions
addressing various types of interaction where covert harm, bias, and
discrimination are manifested. We invite papers that examine these
phenomena from various perspectives, including, for example:
 - Presupposition and Implicature: The use of implicit mechanisms to
introduce biased or stereotypical descriptions without asserting them
directly.
 - Lexical Semantics: The role of specific word choices and parallel
meanings in triggering microaggressions.
 - Plausible Deniability: How speakers exploit indirect meaning to
avoid accountability when challenged.
 - Speech Acts and Impoliteness: Intersections of speech act theory
and impoliteness frameworks in evaluating the illocutionary force of
microaggressions and their perlocutionary effects on targets.
 - Social-psychological and discursive approaches: How diverse
sociocultural backgrounds affect the detection, negotiation, or
dismissal of covertly harmful utterances in everyday discourse.
 - Cognitive approaches: What psycho-linguistic methods reveal about
the processing and reception of microaggression.
We invite panel contributions addressing the above and related
issues/questions for presentations and discussions. The panel will
consist of 30-minute talks (20 for presentation, 10 for questions).
We have so far secured the participation of Chi-Hé Elder (University
of East Anglia), Zev Friedlaender (Seattle University), Lou Noah
Odermatt (Université de Fribourg), Nicolas Ruytenbeek (KU Leuven), and
Alina Tsikulina (Université de Lille).
Abstracts (min. 250 and max. 500 words) for panel contributions need
to be submitted via the IPrA conference website by October, 15th 2026:
https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027. Please note that IPrA
membership is required for submitting an abstract and presenting at
the conference. For more information, see
https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki.
Panel organisers: Célia Vamiller (Ghent University) and Ilse
Depraetere (Université de Lille).
Contact person: Celia.Vamiller at UGent.be
References:
Bührer, S., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2024). The WWW of Digital Hate
Perpetration: What, Who, and Why? A Scoping Review, Computers in Human
Behavior 159(3), 108321. 10.1016/j.chb.2024.108321
Culpeper, J. (2011). Impoliteness. Using language to cause offense.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elder, C. (2021). Microaggression or misunderstanding? Implicatures,
inferences and accountability, Journal of Pragmatics, 179, 37-43.
10.1016/j.pragma.2021.04.020
Freeman, L., & Stewart, H. (2021). Toward a Harm-Based Account of
Microaggressions, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5),
1008-1023. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691621101709
Friedländer, Z. (2023). Microaggressions. In Sellers, M, Kirste, S.
(Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.
Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_1071-1
Glover, J. (2023). Perlocutionary Frustration: A Speech Act Analysis
of Microaggressions, Philosophia, 51, 1293-1308.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00592-y
Holtgraves, T. (2023). Microaggressions in Context: Linguistics and
Pragmatic Perspectives, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(4),
733-737. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221133824
Pierce, C.M. (1974). Psychiatric problems of the black minority. In S.
Arieti (Ed.), American Handbook of Psychiatry (pp. 512-523). New York:
Basic Books.
Popa-Wyatt, M., & Wyatt, J. (2018). Slurs, Roles and Power,
Philosophical Studies 175(11), 1-28. 10.1007/s11098-017-0986-2



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